Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

Abstract

Comparative Study of Biological Agents, Trichoderma harzianum (Th- Azad) and Trichoderma viride (01PP) for Controlling Wilt Disease in Pigeon Pea

Mohammad Shahid, Mukesh Srivastava, Anuradha Singh, Vipul Kumar, Smita Rastogi, Neelam Pathak and AK Srivastava

The paper aims to study the morphological, physiological, molecular characterization and bio-formulation of Trichoderma harzianum (Th Azad) and Trichoderma viride 01PP-8315, an effective fungicide and a biological control agent too that protects the plants and seeds from other pathogenic fungi. The physiologic study is done in an attempt to find the effective management of the disease caused by soil borne pathogens. Trichoderma harzianum (Th Azad) and Trichoderma viride 01PP-8315 isolated from the infected soil samples of Pigeon pea fields and grown at preferable temperatures, pH and different solid and liquid culture media. Most preferable temperature for the growth and sporulation of Trichoderma harzianum (Th Azad) and Trichoderma viride 01PP-8315 has been observed up to 30ºC (210.5 mg dry weight of mycelium). A detailed morphology of the strain is done in this study including colony growth rate, colony color, colony edge, mycelial form, conidiation, conidiophore branching, conidial wall, conidial color, etc. The molecular characterization of the strain is carried out using an 18S rRNA gene sequence with the help of a universal Internal Transcribed Spacer marker that gives an amplicon of a total of 1173 base pairs and 546 bp of the 18S rRNA gene was sequenced and used for the identification of isolated fungal strains that is later sequenced and allotted with Gene Bank Accession no. JX119211 and KC800922 respectively. To check the presence of endochitinase gene in two of the potential strains of Trichoderma species viz. T. harzianum (Th Azad) and T. viride 01PP an ech42 primer was used. A talc based bio-formulation has been prepared with this strain where the population of the spores was found to decline after 180 days.